The legends live on at Labatt Breweries of Canada in both the Streamliner and the 1919 Antique Keg Truck.

When the John Labatt Brewery began converting from horse-drawn vehicles, it chose the 1919 White Model 45 motor truck. The 1919 Keg Truck gave way to the Labatt Streamliner, which became the king-of-the-road well into 1950.

A Brief History

The Streamliner legend was born in 1936 with the delivery of the first Labatt “Streamliner” truck, conceived and designed by Count Alexis de Sakhnoffsky, the famous French-Russian technical designer.

The tractor chassis was produced by the White Motor Company of Canada Ltd. Smith Bros. Motor Body Works of Toronto crafted the bodies from hardwood and aluminum paneling. The need of the day was for an efficient and highly recognizable truck to deliver Labatt beer – and that is exactly what the Streamliners accomplished.

Labatt Streamliners brought a dramatic aerodynamic design to roads that were filled with square, drab trucks. They also gave Labatt an instant identity with their bright burst of red colour and gold graphics.

The second Streamliner model, produced in 1936, was bolder in its look, winning the “Best Design” award at the New York World’s Fair in 1939. Labatt and The White Motor Company were well aware that this truck had the makings of a legend.  A third design  was commissioned by John and Hugh Labatt, a design  that would see even more sweeping curves added  to the roof of the tractor and a long tail fin added  to the trailer.

World War II interrupted the commercial production of trucks and it was 1947 before Labatt began receiving the regular delivery of Streamliner trucks. Even then, 15 years after they first appeared, Labatt Streamliners were a unique sight on Ontario’s roads. They provided the company with a powerful and instant identity – an identity that also received worldwide attention in trucking magazines.

The Streamliners were seen on Canadian highways for almost 20 years. In 1977, Labatt put Joe Scott, the former president of White Truck Sales Limited in London, Ont., under contract. Scott, with the help of his brother Bob, began putting together a plan to find and restore an original Streamliner. A classified advertisement announced that Joe Scott was posting a $500 reward for anyone who could locate a Streamliner tractor and trailer.

Newspapers across Canada picked up the story, and what followed was an unexpected barrage of replies. People phoned by the hundreds, from as far away as Sweden, with clues to the tractor’s whereabouts. It seemed that the Scotts had finally made a breakthrough in their search. Joe flew down to Colorado to follow up on one lead, and after driving about 1,500 miles in and around the state; he discovered that the tractor had been scrapped.

Another lead took Joe to Revelstoke, B.C., where he had to contend with a community of Doukhobors, who were convinced he was an RCMP officer up to no good. Once again, he came away empty-handed.

After exhausting all of their leads, the Scotts found two Labatt cab-over tractors of the same year – 1947. They decided to build the cab itself, from the ground up.

Although blueprints of the Streamliner had disappeared long ago, the brothers decided to make every effort to restore the truck to its original shape. By feeding old photographs into a computer, drawings of the tractor-trailer were produced that were accurate to within one thirty-secondth of an inch. These drawings would become a constant guideline for the duration of their work.

With patience and determination, they rebuilt the frame with hundreds of pieces of wood of varying shapes and sizes.

An antique roller, that had been discovered in with old machinery at Fanshawe, a local college, was used to roll the aluminum body parts. And more than 30 different hammers were used to pound the metal parts out on a leather sandbag. Piece by piece, the body began to take shape.

The original fenders, which needed replacing, were made from a complicated wire bead no longer available in North America.  It would have cost $6,000 just to buy the die for the right roller.

Fortunately, Joe discovered the exact fenders he needed during a trip to Holland, and a set of six was shipped home.

The brothers went to great pains to reproduce the lustrous glow of the original units, using five primer coats, five coats of bright red paint, and five clear coats to protect the finish from wash and wear. And for the lettering, styled after the signature of the second John Labatt, nine coats of authentic gold leaf were used along with five clear coats.